


Eleusinian

by Writers_Muse



Series: One-Shots (And Two-Shots) ^_^ [24]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Adrien Agreste is Missing, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Alternate Universe, Eventual reveal, F/M, Fox Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Hades and Persephone AU, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is Missing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is a Mess, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Miraculous Headcanons, Mystery, Post-Canon, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Sort Of, Turtle Nino Lahiffe | Carapace, miraculous lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22275580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writers_Muse/pseuds/Writers_Muse
Summary: Four and a half years ago, after the defeat of Hawkmoth, Adrien Agreste went into seclusion and his friends never saw him again.  Soon after, Chat Noir disappeared.Six months ago, Chat Noir suddenly re-appeared, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng went missing.Alya isn't giving up until she finds her friends.She may not find what she expected.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: One-Shots (And Two-Shots) ^_^ [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1294469
Comments: 49
Kudos: 393





	Eleusinian

**Author's Note:**

> I started this months ago and forgot about it until I found it in my files today hahaha. Then I had to finish it.  
> Ahhhhh this fic is full of so many head canons, so be prepared.  
> First of all, it's set post Hawkmoth defeat. They're all mid-twenties adults.  
> Following Chat Noir's disappearance, Marinette fell into depression and isolated herself from society.  
> After she disappears, Alya embarks on a journey to deal with the loss of her best friend and to find the answers she so desperately needs.  
> The majority of this fic is centered around Alya and Nino and their relationship.  
> Angsty moments, happy moments, slightly open ending. Please keep an open mind, and I hope you enjoy!  
> <3 Muse

“Babe, you almost ready?”

Alya voice echoed back through the apartment. Her keys jingled in her hands as she looked back down the hallway behind her, expectant, her body twisted with the effort.

“Yea. Comin.”

The words preceded the individual, and Nino eventually emerged from down the dim corridor. As he walked, he pulled a jacket on over his arms, his typical glasses, hat, and neck-slung headphones already in place.

“Got the keys?”

“Yep.”

“Great.” He placed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Let’s go. Don’t wanna miss the movie.”

As he crossed the rest of the distance to the apartment’s front door, he noticed the lack of footfalls behind him. Knob in hand, he turned and looked back to see Alya standing at the island counter, gaze fixed on her open palm.

“Babe?” he asked.

The redhead unconsciously grasped the foxtail necklace she was wearing with the hand still holding onto her keys and turned to face him, frowning.

“What you got there?” 

She stared at him for a moment as though not hearing. Just as he was about to ask the question again, she looked back down at the object in her palm.

The wonder and confusion in her voice was audible.

“Pomegranate seeds.”

* * *

_6 months earlier_

“No, you don’t under _stand_ , officer. She didn’t run away. She’s _missing._ ”

The underpaid police man across the counter looked at her, nonplussed.

“Has she been gone for more than 72 hours?”

“No-”

“Did you see her taken against her will?”

“Well, no-”

“Is there any credible reason you have to suspect that she’s been the victim of a violent assault?”

“No-”

“I”m sorry, miss, but for now, there’s nothing we can do.”

Alya slammed her hands down on the counter with a loud grunt of frustration and pushed off, turning toward the glass doors.

“Hey. Al. It’s ok, calm down.”

Nino chased after her, doing his best to soothe her fiery anger by placing a hand on her arm, but she threw it off with a huff.

“No, Nino. Ok? It’s _not_. Marinette is _missing_ , and nobody gives a shit-”

“Ok, now, that’s just not true.”

“The hell it isn’t!”

The bar on the glass door banged loudly with the force of her push. The tall, bespectacled man hurried through the door behind her as she took off at a pace that couldn’t really be considered walking anymore.

“Hey, Alya-”

But she ignored his supplications, only increasing her speed.

“Al, please, just _stop_ for a second.”

At last, she spun around on him, a fire blazing in her hazel eyes.

“Nino, I love you, and I know that you only have the best of intentions trying to keep me from stressing out about something you think is probably nothing, but _goddammit_ , right now you’re just holding me back, so please, if you’re not going to help me, then _get out of my way_.”

She looked on the verge of tears, something he had never seen in all their years together.

“Al,” he tried again, this time stepping closer. He raised a hand up to cup the side of her face while he held her gaze, unflinching. “Would you shut up long enough to let me speak?”

People passed them by where they were standing, tucked into a niche beside an old awning. Neither of them paid it any mind.

Alya peered back at him, waiting. Nino took a breath.

“As much as I’ve hesitated until now to think there’s anything even remotely suspicious going on… I want to support you. And if you feel that strongly about this, then I’m there with you. But that doesn’t change the fact that you have to stop running yourself into the ground. We need to be smarter about this. You’re the smartest person I know, so why don’t we take a breath and _think._ ”

Her eyes widened as he spoke, something like recognition lighting inside them.

“Yea,” she replied slowly. He could practically see the wheels turning in her mind until a hard, determined look took over her features. “If they’re not going to do anything, then I’m going to figure this out myself.”

* * *

_48 hours earlier_

“All right, all right, I got it, _mom._ ”

“Hey,” Alya voice came through the speaker pressed against Marinette’s ear, causing her to smile. “First of all, it’s Mama Alya to you, child.” Marinette scoffed amusedly and shook her head. “And second of all, _no more excuses._ You’ve got this. Just _do it already._ ”

“I know, I know!”

Someone walking in the opposite direction bumped Marinette on the shoulder, pushing her slightly off balance. She turned, surprised for a moment by the feeling of familiarity. It was only a glimpse, but that blond hair peeking out from underneath a black hood.... She looked after the stranger’s form as he continued to walk further away, then shook her head as though to clear it and turned forward again. It was then she realized Alya was still talking.

“-after work, ok?”

“Hmm? Sorry, I spaced out there for a second.”

“Ugh! Girl, stop being so spacey. I _said_ , you’re going to have fun and it’s going to be great, and you’re going to tell me all about it after I get home from work tonight, all right?”

One side of her mouth quirked upward in a rueful half-smile.

“Yea. Ok.”

Despite her efforts, there was a hint of dejection in her tone.

Alya sighed.

“Marinette.”

“Yea?”

“It’s… been years. I don’t think Adrien is ever coming back. And who can blame him? We all love him, but he’s been through a lot, and he probably just wanted a chance to start over. Holding out on the hope he might someday come back is-”

“I’m not,” Marinette cut in.

“Girl-”

“I’m not. Really.”

There was silence on the other line as though her inquisitive friend was measuring the truth in her words.

“I mean it,” Marinette assured her. “It’s really ok. I’m ok. Adrien deserves peace and happiness, and I hope he finds them. It’s not… because of _him._ ”

Alya hesitated for a moment, thinking.

“Then… who…” she trailed off for a moment, then sighed, understanding. “Marinette,” she began, sounding very tired, “I know you’re disappointed Chat Noir disappeared. Hell, _I’m_ disappointed he disappeared- so is all of Paris. And I _know_ he was your special friend, but, I mean, we still have Ladybug, right? And whatever Chat Noir had to deal with, whatever reason he didn’t come back, I’m sure it’s a good one, all right? Don’t listen to those stupid rumors. He’s _not_ dead. That’s ridiculous. Besides, I did a lot of research about blond males in their early twenties who died or were involved in accidents around the time he stopped appearing. The timeline is just way too off for any of them to be him.”

Marinette listened in silence, knowing all these details--Alya repeated them quite often--and kept walking, the clack clack of her heels somehow resounding over the hustle and bustle of everyone around her. Paris streets are crowded, and with the beautiful, sunny Spring weather, it seemed as though everyone was outside.

Without even realizing it, Marinette turned into a park, the small pink petals of cherry blossoms blowing softly past her ears and cascading like snow onto her raven hair. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the bronze statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir that was installed in their first year as heroes. Chat’s empty metallic eyes, still managing to capture their mischief and their joy, stared back at her.

Alya’s voice continued ringing in her ear.

“So try to relax and have fun on your date, ok?”

She couldn’t understand how badly Marinette missed her partner. How could she?

And she was right: Ladybug was still around, never letting on to anyone just how devastated and lost she was without him.

“Yea. Ok.”

No one could ever know.

* * *

_Ring ring._

_Ring ring._

_Ring ring._

_Ring ring._

Alya frowned into her purse as she walked out of the doors of the building where she worked at _Le Monde_. It was late evening, and the sun was almost gone below the horizon, casting a dusky pink light over the world around her. She pulled her jacket around her shoulders to keep out the cool air.

Her phone rang again, and when she finally managed to wrangle it out from the bag at her side, the caller ID gave her a start of surprise. She answered and lifted it to her ear, frowning.

“Luka?”

“Hey. Alya. Sorry to bother you.”

“No, it’s ok. What’s wrong? Is Marinette ok?”

“Ah, well, I was hoping you would know?”

A few seconds of silence passed while she processed that.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“It’s just… she.. never.. showed?”

“ _What?_ ”

The clicking of her shoes on the pavement increased in speed, betraying the rise in her anxiety.

“Yea, uh, I don’t know what happened. I waited for her for a while, but she never showed up. I thought maybe she was running late or just having a hard time with, well, _you know_ , so I waited. But when she didn’t come after an hour, I tried calling her, and she didn’t answer. I texted her a few times, and it’s been a while since I sent the last one, so I was just wondering if you knew where she was and if she was all right. But I guess not, since this all seems to be news to you.”

Alya was walking at practically a break-neck pace, her jaw hanging slightly open as she fought for words.

“Ah… no. I don’t… but I will. I’ll find her. I’ll let you know.”

His sigh echoed through the speaker, a relieved sound.

“Thanks, Al. I’m really sorry about this. It’s probably my fault. I knew she wasn’t ready, and I still asked her-”

“No. It’s not your fault,” she cut in. “It’s just… not.” He stayed quiet. “I’ll find her and let you know when I do.”

“All right. Thanks Al.”

She ended the call and was tucking her phone back into her purse when it dinged with an alert.

“Ugh, what now?”

When she lifted the screen, her eyes rounded into saucers.

“ _What?!_ ”

* * *

Madam Chamack’s voice was playing out of nearly every phone and television in the immediate area. Alya looked frantically back and forth between the screen on her phone and the concrete until she was safely inside the entry door to her apartment building. Whoops and hollers reached her ears from outside, even after she closed it behind her. Taking nearly two at a time, she jogged up the steps leading from the lobby to the fourth floor.

_“The footage was sent in by an amateur just earlier this evening, but Parisians everywhere are already celebrating what they believe to be the return of the hero Chat Noir, who has been missing in action since the defeat of Hawkmoth four years ago. As you can see in the video, there appears to be a tall man with blond hair wearing a tight leather suit jumping over the rooftops. He seems to have the same cat ears and tail and use the same silver baton Chat Noir was known for. However, it is not certain yet whether this is the real Chat Noir or perhaps simply a prank. So far, we have not received any comment from Ladybug regarding this incident.”_

Then the footage played again, though Alya had already seen it several times. As she reached her own door and tucked the key clumsily, hastily into the lock, her eyes remained glued to the images on screen. Sure enough, there was a blond man in tight black leather jumping with the aid of a metallic-looking pole from one roof to the next, his thin belt dragging behind him. He looked taller and more muscular than she remembered Chat Noir being, but it was to be expected after an absence of four years, and there was no doubting the familiarity of his movement. 

Barely even remembering to close the door behind her, she sunk onto her couch and stared, entranced, as the video played a few more times, short as it was. At last, Madam Chamack came back on screen and said a few more words, after which the footage changed to the growing celebration in the streets of Paris. From where she was sitting, Alya could hear fireworks exploding and the growing din of thousands of voices trying to talk over each other. A rapid knock at her door startled her out of her trance. Before she even stood to check who it was, though, the knob turned and Nino burst through, eyes wide and shining.

“Holy shit, have you seen it?”

She only nodded in reply, then went back to looking at her phone in hand as he came to sit down beside her.

“That’s…” he trailed. “In _sane._ ”

Again she nodded.

Then a thought occurred to her, and she whipped her head up to face him.

“Oh my God. Marinette.”

* * *

“Wait, slow down, I don’t get it. Marinette disappeared?”

Alya didn’t even glance in Nino’s direction as they navigated through the crowds in the streets. Frustrated cars honked their horns at reckless pedestrians who were beginning to spread into the road.

“She never showed up to her date with Luka, and she won’t answer his calls or messages.” She lifted her phone to check the screen again, then lowered her hand back to her side with an exhale of exasperation. “She isn’t answering me either. I _know_ she must have seen this. It’s too much of a coincidence-”

“And what if she has?”

She came to a halt and turned abruptly to face Nino. Surprised by the sudden change, he stopped quickly but stumbled a little from the residual momentum.

“What?”

“Exactly. What. That girl was a mess when everything went down four years ago. First Adrien and then Chat Noir. She didn’t even _want_ to go out with Luka, but I convinced her to-”

“Why?”

“What?”

For a moment, the two stared at each other, oblivious to the ruckus going on around them.

“Why would you push her into something she wasn’t ready for?”

Alya sighed, frustrated.

“Because someone needed to! She’s drowning in her own head, and it isn’t healthy! And now _this_. Goddammit, this better not be a fucking hoax, or I swear to God-”

Alya spun on her heel and resumed walking.

“Al, wait, slow _down, please._ ”

“I can’t, Nino, I have to go there. I have to see if she’s ok. I have no idea what she’s thinking right now. She only just started going out in public again a few months ago-”

“Hey, seriously, _wait-”_

A hand grabbed her arm, lightly, and she reluctantly slowed, sighing.

“Maybe she just needs some space right now, yea? Why not just send her a message to let her know you’re here for her when she’s ready to talk?”

Red hair swished as she shook her head, her brow furrowing with concern.

“I can’t help it, Nino. I just feel like something is really wrong.”

* * *

“Hey, Marinette?”

Alya knocked softly on her friend’s apartment door while Nino stood, clearly a bit uncomfortable, behind her.

“Marinette, you home?”

Silence answered her. She shifted on her feet and shared a look with Nino. Growing concerned, she knocked on the door again, harder.

“Marinette, it’s me, open up!”

Once again, there was no sign that anyway was there, not a single sound. Grunting somewhat angrily, Alya dug into her purse for the spare key she had and did her best to ignore the way her hands trembled. The key resisted the lock at first, but eventually penetrated and turned.

They crossed the threshold, only to find an empty darkness. Alya reached out and flipped on the light but hesitated before moving cautiously further.

There were no signs that anyone was home, but there were no clues as to what had happened to the person living there either. Some dirty dishes sat in the sink, waiting to be cleaned. A pair of used socks lay bunched up on the floor by the edge of the couch. Marinette’s bed remained unmade, a few articles of clothing tossed on the bed as though she had tried them on and then rejected them earlier that day. Her computer was on but asleep, the power button glowing orange. A partially eaten cookie rested on top of the desk as if she had taken a bite and then forgot to finish it.

Alya walked to her friend’s nightstand, releasing a deep breath at the phone that was lying atop it, plugged in and charging. When she clicked the lock button, the screen lit up, showing multiple missed calls and texts from her and Luka, and some other contacts she didn’t know.

She swiped upward, grateful Marinette didn’t have a passcode programmed into her phone. She navigated through the messages, both hers and Luka’s sounding increasingly concerned as she read. There were some messages from a colleague about a project they were working on together. And then there was a thread from a blocked number. She opened the messages, frowning.

_Come with me to the land of the dead. I’ll be the Hades to your Persephone._

_Be at our spot when the sun goes down. I’ll be the one in black._

Her eyes flew up to the window, peering outside.

The lights of Paris shone brightly in the night.

_“Shit.”_

* * *

“Alya, seriously, you need to _relax-_ ”

“Goddammit, Nino, stop saying that!”

The two were in Marinette’s living room, surrounded by the eerie quiet. Alya stood, tense, in the center of the floor while Nino sat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, on the couch. She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, squinting tightly.

“Alya. There’s really no reason to freak out right now.”

“But that message-”

“Is frankly not all that suspicious,” he interrupted. “For all we know, Marinette is out right now hooking up with Chat Noir and will be back in the morning. And honestly, good on her. She’s been seriously repressed for a while-”

“But it said to join him in _the land of the dead._ What the fuck does that even mean? Some psycho could have murdered her, and we’re just sitting here!”

“Or he could be not so subtly propositioning her.” Alya narrowed her eyes, not following. Nino sighed. “It’s not called ‘la petite mort’ for nothing.”

She shook her head, expression irritated.

“Nino, that’s-”

“Alya. There is _no_ _reason_ to be getting this worried right now. Even if she left her phone behind, it’s probably because she didn’t want anyone bothering her tonight, you know what I mean? Just wait for tomorrow. I bet she’ll be back safe and sound and clumsy as ever. Let’s just… give her space, all right? Leave her phone here and wait for her to call you tomorrow with a ridiculous cover story so you can grill her to your heart’s content.”

She sighed, resigned. Nino rose from the couch.

“Now.” He crossed the short distance between them and curved an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go home, ok?”

“Fine,” she agreed begrudgingly. “But tomorrow, her thirsty ass is toast.”

The man beside her snorted and pulled her closer.

“That’s my girl.”

* * *

_Two Months Missing_

Alya sat at her computer, a disheveled mess. She hadn’t washed her hair in days, there were clothes and dishes all over her apartment, a stack of missing flyers with Marinette’s face on them on her desk, and she wasn’t even sure when was the last time she ate.

But it didn’t matter. The clock was still running. It wouldn’t stop for her, not for anything.

Eight weeks without her best friend left her in a state of desperation. She called in for every sick day, personal leave, and vacation time she had available to search relentlessly for the woman who disappeared without a trace.

Nino had tried to be helpful, but her increasing departure from the real world was becoming concerning. At once becoming tired of his attempts to get her to take better care of herself, she snapped at him. They fought like they never fought before. He left the apartment in an explosive huff and didn’t come back for two weeks. It was fine with her, though. He needed time to cool down. She could do without the distraction.

She spent those two weeks combing over every clue she could find, and there weren’t many. For the most part, she focused her efforts on the sighting of Chat Noir, which, though no one could say for sure it was real since it was a singular event, she _knew_ was genuine. She even had the text messages memorized as evidence.

The police neglected investigating Marinette’s sudden vanishment at first. They were convinced that she simply went somewhere without telling anyone and would return eventually. After a few weeks of no sign of her being _anywhere_ , they combed her apartment and personal belongings. The text messages, unfortunately, had mysteriously disappeared by then. There wasn’t even a record of it on her cell phone bill. It was as though Marinette had simply dissolved into air.

Once the police were done, Alya went through the apartment again herself, hoping to find even a shadow of a hint of what happened to Marinette. All she found was what appeared to be a freshly cut Narcissus bloom beside some dried up seeds.

She stared at them for several seconds before cautiously reaching out. The moment she touched the flower, though, it disintegrated into dust.

Frustrated, Alya sighed, then rose abruptly to stand up from her swivel chair. She grabbed one of her many stress balls off the desktop and began pacing the room, alternating between squeezing the toy with all her might and tossing it back and forth in her hands.

“Flower. Seeds. Messages. Sighting. Flower. Seeds. Messages. Sighting,” she recited over and over again, imagining the clues in her head. After investigating online, she discovered the meaning of the Narcissus flower was rebirth but couldn’t find any other significant facts. It was a common flower, so trying to trace the merchant it came from was pointless. The seeds she found alongside it appeared to be from a pomegranate, which didn’t make a lot of sense to her at first. Marinette hated pomegranate seeds. She said they were slimy and looked like clumpy blood. But then Alya remembered the text message. _I’ll be the Hades to your Persephone_ , it said. That was a myth she could remember. Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld, never able to leave once she ate a few pomegranate seeds.

But no matter how she tried, Alya couldn’t figure out what the purpose of such a message could be. She considered briefly that Chat Noir had kidnapped Marinette, but that didn’t really seem in line with what she knew of his character. And anyway, everything she found suggested that Marinette went to meet him willingly.

The only thing she couldn’t figure out, could never find so much as a hint about, was where their meeting place could be.

She managed to ~~bribe~~ convince the apartment building manager to let her look at their security footage, but it only covered the lobby and immediately outside the entry doors. The most she knew was that Marinette left the apartment building somewhere around 18:30, apparently without her phone. From that point on, she seemed to turn a corner and disappeared. None of the outdoor security footage from any of the nearby businesses who let her look showed anything after that point. It was like she walked through an invisible portal into another dimension.

The one thing that would have been helpful to Alya was nowhere to be found. Her second visit to Marinette’s apartment after the girl’s disappearance (once the police had finished with the place) included a search for her diary, which she knew had been well guarded over the years, but she came up empty-handed.

Since then, she started putting out requests for information on the Ladyblog, but all she got were trolls and conspiracy theorists. Some suggested she was abducted by aliens. Others seemed to think she had been killed by the government. The least insane of all the responders theorized she was targeted by a rival in the fashion world, but Alya couldn’t find anything to support that theory. Besides, she knew better. She knew about Chat Noir.

Desperate, she tried contacting Ladybug for help. But Ladybug never replied.

There were simply no clues left; all trails had gone cold. 

She continued to pace her living room floor, and was near pacing herself into a dizzy spell (which weren’t that uncommon lately with how little she had been eating), when she heard a knock at the door. Fully prepared to tell Nino she needed more time alone, she wrenched the door open, only to come face to face with-

Air. Open, empty air.

Frowning, she looked around and was about the close the door again when her vision dropped to the floor. Sitting there in the hallway was a black octagonal box.

It was covered in familiar red markings. 

* * *

“Whoa, Rena! Slow Down!”

Carapace tried to keep up with the vixen hero, but she was moving too quickly for him. She bounded across the rooftops, completely ignoring the cheers below. Over alleys, on top of awnings, like a roller coaster, and Nino hated roller coasters. They always made him throw up when he was a child. 

People whooped and hollered after them. At one point, Carapace had to ride his shell just to keep from completely being left behind. Finally, when he felt like his lungs were going to burst, she stopped on a rooftop, lifted her hand to shield her eyes, and began frantically looking about.

“Sto- stop,” Carapace panted. He slung his shell onto his back with heavy arms, then braced himself with his hands against his knees in a bent over stance. _“Re-”_ pant _“stop”_ pant _“please.”_

She didn’t spare him a glance.

“This is it. This is the spot they were seen most frequently. I checked all my previous posts and photos, and I did some surveying on the Ladyblog. This is their most sighted meeting point in the city.”

Nino, finally able to stand upright but not quite back to regular breathing, slumped tiredly.

“Rena. Babe,” he began in that voice of his. The one that said _I’m not calling you crazy, but this isn’t exactly sane._ “Just what are you hoping to find here? Is this really the best use of our miraculouses? We’ve barely had them a week-”

“I don’t _care_ , Ni- Carapace.” She finally paused in her examination long enough to fix her gaze in his direction. “As far as I’m concerned, the whole reason we got our miraculouses back is because _someone_ is counting on us to figure things out.” She faced away again, and Nino felt like he could see the weight of an entire world resting on her shoulders. “We have to figure out what happened to them. For Chat Noir. For Ladybug.” Her breath caught, voice becoming thick. She looked at him again. A glimmer in her eyes betrayed her. “For Marinette.”

* * *

_3 months missing_

Nino hesitated as he reached the front door to his and Alya’s apartment. In one hand, he held a canvas bag with groceries for dinner. In his pocket sat a box he had been holding onto for months. A box with a ring in it.

 _Three months exactly_ , he mused dryly, turning the knob. 

The night Marinette disappeared, he had been planning on proposing to Alya. She forgot in her excitement about Marinette’s planned date with Luka that it was the anniversary of the day they ended up locked together in the panther’s cage, and he had planned on surprising her in his apartment with an intimate dinner and a proposal. After the chaos of the evening, he decided to put it off for a few days. And then Marinette never returned. Alya’s descent into obsession with finding her best friend concerned him so much that, after the first month, he moved in with her instead of renewing his lease. Taking care of his girlfriend became almost like a second job. The stress on their relationship was astronomical. He was beginning to wonder if he would ever find the opportunity again to pull out that ring, or if Alya would eventually get tired of him and-

He stilled halfway through the door, eyes growing comically round.

Alya was sitting at the computer desk as she always was when he arrived home. It was a miracle, really, that she hadn’t been fired, but she managed to get her work done from home for several weeks until her superiors told her she had to start coming back into work if she wanted to keep her job.

No, seeing Alya at the desk was nothing new. But the truth was, he hadn’t seen her like this in… months.

Three months, to be exact.

Even though she was absorbed in the screen, her hair looked neat and clean, and her clothes likewise looked fresh as though they had been pulled out of the closet instead of off the floor. When she realized his presence and turned around to greet him, her skin was brighter, and he could see color from lip balm on her lips. She even bothered to put on the bracelet she was known to wear often. Around her neck hung her miraculous.

When she smiled, he nearly dropped to his knees.

Scratch that. He _did_ drop to his knees. The bag with groceries collapsed on the floor, spilling its contents. Some produce. A box of pasta. A small carton of eggs that was now… well, a slipping hazard.

Alya jumped out of her chair and rushed to him.

“Oh my God, Nino, are you ok? What happened?”

They way she looked into his eyes with such concern, grabbing his arms in her hands and searching him for signs of distress, made him forget how to form proper words.

“Marry me.”

Oh, nope. Those were definitely fully formed words that just flew out of his mouth of their own accord.

It seemed that the French language had taken advantage of his disarmed state, courtesy of one hazel-eyed beauty.

The woman in front of him stared, her mouth shaped in a perfect O. For several seconds, she didn’t say anything. Nino, coming to himself, blushed scarlet like he hadn’t since he was a teenager completely lacking control of his hormones.

“Ah- I mean! Th- that’s not… what I meant! I don’t know why I said that!”

There was a sly grin slowing spreading across Alya’s face at Nino’s flustered behavior. He was stuttering and stammering and backtracking, and suddenly her arms were flying around his neck, throwing him off balance and practically sending the two of them tumbling backward. He managed to maintain his uprightness, though, and after the shock of her sudden assault wore off, wrapped his arms around her middle. The roundness of his eyes betrayed his surprise.

“ _Yes_ ,” came a whisper in his ear. “ _Yes. Yes. Yes, for every time you have put up with me and loved me despite the fact I am certifiably insane, and the way you have always supported me, and taken care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself-_ ”

She pulled back, meeting his gaze with hers. The seriousness of her expression sent a new wave of heat into his cheeks.

“Nino,” she said, a bit slower this time. “Will you marry me?”

With shaking hands, Nino reached into his pocket. The both of them looked down as he retrieved the box he had been carrying everywhere with him. Alya’s quiet gasp could be heard.

He looked up at her, still trembling as he opened the box.

“Alya. I love you. Yes. For every time you drive me crazy, for the way you put your all into everything you do, for the-” he swallowed, finding it difficult for a moment to speak. “For being the person who won’t ever give up on the people you love, no matter what.”

As tears spilled over and down her cheeks, Nino slid the ring onto her third finger.

It wasn’t a romantic dinner, or even their anniversary. In fact, they were kneeling in broken eggs on the hard floor of the entry to their apartment.

The moment wasn’t perfect.

But it was even better than he dreamed.

* * *

_4 months missing_

“I think I’ve really found something interesting,” Alya called out, her voice muffled slightly by the bit of apple she was chewing, fruit still in hand.

Nino poked his head out of the kitchen.

“Yea?” he asked. “I guess those contacts in the police department really paid off, huh?”

Her chuckle could be heard even after he returned to the food he was cooking at the stove.

“Yea, no kidding. As soon as I got my boss’s backing that Hawkmoth’s case files should be public knowledge, there wasn’t anything they could do but put off the inevitable as long as possible. Buuuut,” she trailed dramatically, lifting up a piece of paper with her clean hand and looking it over with satisfaction. “I always get what I want in the end.”

Nino snorted.

“Yea you do. They never stood a chance.”

Alya smiled to herself, pleased at the pride in her fiance’s voice.

“Damn right,” she murmured.

* * *

“So, wait, I don’t understand. Gabriel had _what, now_?”

Nino sat on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. His eyes narrowed toward where Alya was sitting in the desk chair.

She arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him.

“A grimoire. With images and descriptions of all the miraculouses.”

The bespectacled man sat back and shook his head, floored.

“Yea, I know,” Alya agreed, even though Nino didn’t actually say anything. He didn’t have to. She always knew what he was thinking. “And get this: no one in the department can translate it. They’ve tried. There’s some sort of weird voodoo around it that gives everyone headaches and blurry vision when they look at it for too long--even in pictures.” Her grin widened at his shocked expression. “But now _I’ve_ got the images they took. Well, copies.”

Nino shook his head again, still processing.

“So, wait, you’re telling me they don’t have that effect on you?”

Her eyes visibly brightened, betraying her excitement.

“No! From what I can tell, Gabriel had no problem with that either, or Nathalie, so that can only mean one thing.”

Alya paused dramatically. He waited, expectant, for her to continue.

“Don’t you get it?” she asked. She was practically vibrating out of her seat, but he just shook his head.

“No, now spit it out already!”

She couldn’t help the excited giggles that bubbled out of her. Rising out of her chair, she pounced and landed right in front of him, grabbing onto his forearms in her enthusiasm.

“It’s because we’re _miraculous holders!_ ”

* * *

_6 months missing_

“Babe you about ready? We’re going to miss our own engagement party.”

Nino’s voice carried down the hall, but Alya hardly paid it any mind. She was too absorbed in the papers before her, which were spread out across her computer desk and the floor as though they were intended to take up as much surface area as possible. She looked rapidly from one to the next, the pieces finally coming together after four long weeks of decoding and researching. She wanted to know what had happened to her friends, so she paid special attention to the ladybug, black cat, and eventually the butterfly miraculouses first. The others were, she figured, unimportant and could wait for later.

Finally, she had a breakthrough.

“Babe!”

Nino emerged from the hallway, white dress shirt hanging from his hand and tie draped around his neck. Instead of slacks, he was still wearing only his boxers.

She whipped her head around, startled. All his previous calls to her went essentially unheard.

“Babe, I know you’re on a roll right now, but we are literally going to miss our own engagement party. And have you seen the blazer that goes with these pants?”

She looked down at his bare legs, smirking.

“What pants?”

Nino dropped his gaze down at himself in surprise, practically yelping to find he was not in fact wearing pants.

“Damnit.”

With that he disappeared again down the hallway, calling behind him:

“Seriously though, Al. If you don’t start getting ready soon, we’re going to be late, and you know how your mom is about being on time!”

Alya rolled her eyes at that.

Oh, she was aware.

Still, she was onto something, and she couldn’t just drop it. She could taste the answer on the tip of her tongue, could see it coming together with all of the pieces right in front of her. If there was just--

There!

She lifted up the pages for the butterfly miraculous, reading over her translations again, which were incredibly difficult to get when people couldn’t look at the lettering for very long. She had to find someone she trusted implicitly, a contact in the archaeology program at a university in the city. The woman could only view fragments of the text as a time because of the effects, and only for a few minutes. Still, she worked and pushed herself to her limit until she had all of the most important pages translated.

Alya could have kissed her.

In fact, she did. Nino was there, though. He said he was totally okay with it.

“Oh my God,” she mumbled to herself. She sat back from her haunches directly to the floor, still holding the papers in hand. “That’s really it, isn’t it? But… but why-”

She cut off there when her eyes caught something. Lifting up a page from the ladybug miraculous, she compared it with the butterfly.

“No,” she thought out loud. “There’s no way… But that’s….”

Tears welled up in her eyes. Her hands, and the papers in them, dropped to her sides, eyelids falling closed.

Just then Nino re-entered the room.

“Babe, which of these ties is better with these pa-”

When he saw her there, he stopped and set the clothes to the side, then stepped slowly closer.

“Alya?” With careful hand, he reached out and softly touched her shoulder, shocked to see the tear tracks on her cheeks. “Babe?”

Her eyes opened then, drowning him in hazel.

“I think I know what happened.”

* * *

“So, wait, Ladybug and Chat Noir are _where?_ ”

Nino signaled a turn, though their car wouldn’t be moving likely for a while. The traffic in Paris was terrible, and he was beginning to remember why he always took the metro. But it was a special night, and they were both so well dressed, he figured it was an important occasion.

Besides, they had things to discuss in private.

“They’re in another dimension,” Alya stated matter-of-factly.

Nino had a hard time keeping the incredulity off his face.

“A _what?_ ”

“Another dimension,” she repeated. “The miraculouses are all human-made, but the things that are tethered to them are beings from another world. A place that exists outside of our reality. They draw their power from that dimension, that’s why when the aura of a miraculous changes-”

“Wayyz can feel it,” he finished for her. She smiled, pleased he was understanding.

“Exactly. But manipulating the energies of the higher beings affects the order of the universe--and since the kwamis are a conduit of power from another reality, those effects have repercussions for us, too.” 

Nino nodded, but didn’t say anything. Alya continued. 

“So, say the butterfly miraculous is corrupted, and its energy tainted.”

“That’s not exactly hypothetical.”

“Hush. I’m talking.”

“Sorry.”

His mouth quirked in amusement, finally seeing a break in the traffic. Slowly, the cars started to move, and he switched the car into gear.

“In that case, the wearer is also affected, along with anything the miraculous’s energy touches. That’s why Hawkmoth was able to completely take over people and heighten their negative emotions. And that’s why Gabriel Agreste eventually started going insane.”

“Dude was already insane to start with,” Nino muttered. She ignored it.

“It’s also what happened to Nathalie and Emilie Agreste. The peacock miraculous was already damaged when Emilie put it on, only the effect it had on her since it was a physical defect was on her bodily health. The same with Nathalie.”

“So, what does this have to do with the ladybug and black cat? If a corrupted miraculous hurts the wearer, why should that have any effect on them?”

“See now, that’s the thing. Those two are not just a set, they’re special. They’re creation and destruction, which is the fabric that shapes reality. They’re not just tethers between forces from another world. They’re the sources of every reality that exists. Any disturbance in energy goes through them, too.”

“What are you saying then? What happened to them?”

Alya sighed, trying to temper the restlessness rising up in her and sending tremors into her extremities.

“Akumatized victims are purified by the miraculous of creation. But if the ladybug and black cat wearers are tainted by the energy of a corrupted miraculous, the effects can’t be reversed. _That’s_ what I found in those pages. They’re like the balancing effects on corrupted energies. The wearers absorb the negative energy cleansed from the purified miraculous. So every time Ladybug purified an akuma, her miraculous took on its energy. And it’s shared between the ladybug and the black cat since the two of them are counterparts to each other. Eventually, the energy is released back into the universe.”

“So what does that mean for the miraculous holders?”

The car pulled up alongside the curb of _Le Grand Paris._ Both Alya and Nino looked reluctantly at the valet waiting outside.

“ _Shit_ ,” Nino muttered. Alya looked at him and gave a resigned sigh.

“We’ll have to finish this conversation later.”

* * *

Nino and Alya rode for several minutes in silence, both exhausted from their long evening and unsure how to restart the conversation from before. Such a heavy topic couldn’t be approached lightly.

At last, Nino caved and broke the ice.

“I wonder if… I wonder what it would be like… to have Marinette and Adrien here.”

He chanced a glance at his fiancee, who was looking out through her passenger window. She remained quiet for a moment. He was beginning to try thinking of new ways to bring it up when she sighed.

“Separately? They would have probably brought the party down with their recent depressive introversion. Together? They probably would have stolen the show being perfect in love.” She turned to him then, smiling sadly. “But we’ll never know. Because they’re never coming back.”

Nino looked between her and the road, not sure for a minute what to say next.

“And… Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

Alya drew a deep breath, then released it and looked back out the window.

“Their bodies become reservoirs for the negative energies. It builds up in their systems, leading them to be more withdrawn, more inclined to depression. Traumatic or stressful life events are even more debilitating. If they’re separated from each other… they’ll fall into depression and may never come out of it.”

Nino’s mind was racing. Why did all this sound so familiar?

“Eventually, they’ll disappear completely. As in, literally. The miraculouses they have always worn slowly wear away at them, even faster the more they use them. From what I can glean, the end comes when they’re transferred to another plane of existence. How it happens and what that reality is like, I don’t know.” She turned to Nino. “I hope it’s one where they’re happy. Where they can finally be together.” A tear slid down her cheek, glistening in the street light. “Adrien and Marinette deserve that.”

The car slowed to a stop at a traffic signal. Nino couldn’t tear his eyes away from the woman he loved.

Then, in almost a whisper, he asked:

“ _What did you just say?_ ”

She sniffed, wiping away a tear and giving him a wobbly, wan smile.

“Adrien and Marinette. They were Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

* * *

“This is it.” Alya lifted up a copy of a photo from the grimoire. “You see this symbol here?” 

She pointed at a small symbol in the lower corner of the page. Then she reached down and pulled out Marinette’s sketchbook. Some of the pages were covered in random doodles. A few of the doodles were perfect replicas of the symbol on the paper. Nino frowned.

“But that’s… _what?_ ”

“It makes perfect sense,” his fiancee explained. “Marinette was always so close with Chat Noir, which I was too excited about to think was weird. And when he disappeared, she was absolutely broken for _years._ Instead of getting better, she slowly got worse. And her behavior was always really suspicious when we were in school. She used to disappear all the time and acted strange when people would ask her why. And let’s face it--she looked just like her. I honestly think there’s some magic dedicated to preventing people from recognizing miraculous holders. There’s no way we should have missed it before.”

Nino couldn’t argue with most of that logic.

“But, why do you think Adrien was Chat Noir?”

“Babe, I’ve been saying that for _years._ And can you blame me? Not only does he look just like him, but he completely shut down and disappeared when his dad was unmasked, which is entirely understandable, but Chat Noir went inactive soon after that. And look at this!” She excitedly shuffled her pages around pulled one related to the black cat. “This ring. I know I’ve seen it on Adrien’s hand a million times. Look, see?” She retrieved her phone from the small purse hanging on her hip and flipped through the files to an old photo from their early years together as a group. Zooming in on Adrien’s hand, a thick silver ring could be seen on his right hand. “And if that isn’t enough to convince you,” she continued, then flipped to an old photo of Chat Noir, expanding the photo until his miraculous could be seen clearly. It looked identical except for the coloring and the paw print.

Nino could only stare at the images for several moments, then quietly uttered, “ _Wow…_ ”

The two of them looked at each other briefly before Alya knelt down and started collecting the strewn pages.

“I know, right?” she said in a thick voice. A sniff followed, and a discreet wiping of her cheek.

Then something occurred to Nino.

“But, what about their miraculouses? What happens to them? Are they lost?”

She pivoted her upper body, stack of papers collected in her hands. Standing, she organized and straightened the pages as best she could.

“I’m not sure,” she answered at last. “But tomorrow, we start looking.”

* * *

A woman with midnight black hair yawned lazily as a ray of sunlight warmed her face. Her eyes remained closed though, comfortable as she was tucked between the softest sheets she had ever felt in her life. They glided smoothly over her skin, and she suddenly became aware that there was a warm body nestling up against hers. Warmth against her warmth. Skin against her skin. She smiled.

“Mmmm,” the woman groaned, then extended two arms overhead in a stretch. She felt herself grasped around the waist and pulled tighter against the warm body.

“Morning, _purr_ -incess,” a deep voice purred against her. Her eyelids began to flutter, then sleepily opened. Hair golden as the sunlight greeted her sight.

“Mmmm,” she sighed, closing them again. A nose and a pair of lips nuzzled her neck and chest. “Morning, kitty,” she returned contentedly.

Soft, featherlight kisses peppered her front, drawing closer to her lips and face. When they reached the tip of her chin, they stopped. Her eyelids parted, once again letting in unfiltered sunshine.

A pair of green eyes in a smiling face greeted hers.

“What shall we do today, my lady?”

She narrowed her eyes at his smirking face, then curled her forearms around his neck and pulled him closer, stopping just before their lips met.

“I can think of a few things,” she rasped lowly, then closed the rest of the distance between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this to the end! I know supporting character-centric fics aren't read as much and kudo'd even less. I truly am thankful for you even making it to this point.
> 
> Please, whatever you thought about that story, I'm dying to know. It's such an experimental fic for me, I'd appreciate any feedback you have! Thanks again for being my reader!
> 
> Deepest <3 Muse
> 
> Additional note:
> 
> Thank you all for the incredibly positive response to this fic! I wasn't expecting much seeing as how it's got a very open ending, and it has a lot of head-canonical ideas/lore in it, but for me, that was the fun of writing it!
> 
> Anyway, several of you asked some questions about this universe, so I decided to indulge you with a few (but not too many) answers. Here goes.
> 
> As for the specific clues Alya found (the seeds, the flower, the messages, etc.), they're mostly symbolic elements to refer to certain ideas (the seeds are from the myth, the Narcissus flower means rebirth, the message is a clear reference), but I also intend them to hint at a connection between the dimensions, which brings me to my next answer.
> 
> Yes, Marinette and Adrien are in another dimension, but the way I'm thinking of these realities is kind of in a Whovian-esque way. They exist simultaneously, overlapping each other without ever actually touching. In the story, Adrien went first, which is why Chat Noir disappeared soon after Adrien went into hiding. I've given some foundation for why this happened to him before Marinette, but the basic gist is he was traumatized by his dad being Hawkmoth, and on top of that, he's the yin in their universal balance, so he's quicker to absorb negative energy, even if it is distributed evenly. That means, if he went first, he found a way to come back for Marinette.
> 
> A few of you asked about Marinette or Adrien being able to cross dimensions. The seeds at the very beginning (the Alya in the six months after Marinette disappeared--the rest of the story is basically a flashback) are supposed to be a very big clue about whether there's anyway to physically contact, as well as what I just said about Adrien coming back for Marinette. I'm not revealing anything about how or where they crossed over, but if I ever decide to do another fic in this universe, those ideas will be given more consideration.
> 
> Finally: no, they're not dead, and yes, they're still human.
> 
> Hope this is tough to satisfy! If I decide to add anything more to this universe, I'll try my best to make it an equally unique and interesting addition!


End file.
